Page 39 of To Hunt A Wolf
“Excuse me?”
“You’re going to find a safe place to lay low while I handle this.”
“You can’t be serious. You want me tohide?”
“I want you tolive,” she snaps then reaches for her door handle and yanks harder than necessary. She’s pissed. And now that Franco isn’t watching, she’s letting it show.
But I don’t move to open my door.
“Get in,” she says.
“No.”
“Mac,” she warns. “We don’t have time for this.”
“You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”
She doesn’t even pretend to be confused about who I mean. We both know I’m talking about Thiago—the asshole who paid to have me killed.
“He messed with my family,” is all she says.
Like that’s all the reason she needs.
Maybe it is, but it’s not a good enough reason to shove me in a hole somewhere while she does all the dirty work. The words of that security guard ring in my head. If something happens to Thiago, that would make Kari automatic alpha. Would he really carry out Thiago’s order to kill her? I can’t be sure, and the thought of risking it—of letting my mother loose on him—makes me sick.
“I won’t be left behind on this.”
“You’ll do what I say until I make it safe for you again,” she says.
Her voice is more than a warning now. It’s a promise that she intends to get her way even if it means taking me by force.
“He has Kari,” I remind her. “And he’s threatened to hurt her if something happens to him. Do your plans include making sure shedoesn’tget hurt?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Not good enough,” I all but yell.
My mother hesitates. “You’re my daughter, Mac.” Desperation leaks into her eyes. “What am I supposed to do?”
Vulnerability is only there for a second, and then it’s gone. The mask is back. But even a glimpse is proof she’s more upset than I realized.
Still, I can’t let her make a bigger mess of what’s already a shitshow.
“I can’t let you do this,” I say.
Instead of giving in, though, her expression hardens. “It’s not up to you.”
When I still don’t move, I expect her to come at me, maybe even physically put me in this car. She can try, anyway. I’ve never come to blows with my mother, but for this, for Kari, I would.
But instead, she pulls out her phone and dials a number.
“Tell Franco Mac is staying here until I get back,” she says.
“What?” My eyes widen. No freaking way she’s dumping me with the mafia while she kills Thiago.
“Yeah, I’ll owe him,” she says in response to whoever’s on the other end of the call.
She hangs up and glances at me one last time. “I can’t not protect you, Mac. You’ll understand someday.”
